Donetsk Blog Mar 16: Shelling Intensity Doubles - Conscripts Forced to Front - Ukrainian Mutinies
This is a new, and, we hope, not long-lived feature on Russia Insider. Ukraine’s civil war is still very much ongoing. Both sides are exchanging fire. Civilians and soldiers continue to die on both sides.
DONi was recently founded by a Finnish journalist and Russian businessman whom we know, and we have every reason to believe that their reporting can be relied on as truthful. More information about the agency follows below this report.
Due to its slow, simmering nature, events in Novorossiya rarely make headlines, so people forget there is a real war going on.
Donetsk, Friday, Mar 16, 16.30 pm. Exclusive to Russia Insider
(Attn readers: this is frequent feature - if you would like to have clarification of facts mentioned here, additional information, more explanation of why certain events are happening, please ask us in the comments section, or email the author at: i.burya@dninews.com This will help us provide you with information you want to have.)
The Ukrainian military’s attempt at a frontal attack between the capital of the DPR and the second-largest city of Gorlovka in the north has failed. Kiev has therefore doubled the intensity of shelling in order to bring maximum damage to the infrastructure of the Republic. According to the DPR Defense Ministry, over the past two days the Ukrainian military shelled DPR territory 864 times, including 570 incidents of shelling yesterday involving 26 shells from tanks, and 162 bombs coming from 120mm mortars and 165 from 82mm mortars.
Over the past week, the Ministry reports, the territory of the Republic has been shelled by the Ukrainian side 2,009 times, including 982 shells from heavy weapons. DONi reporters personally visited a suburb of Donetsk city near the front and recorded audio of the intensity of the fighting going on there.
(Credibility - DONi closely follows the reports of the governments of the DPR and their Ukrainian counterparts and secures independent confirmation when possible. In our experience, the DPR’s claims are correct approximately 95% of the time, whereas official Ukrainian reports are almost never correct, and for all appearances, deliberately so.)
According to the Ministry, as a result of the shelling, two DPR soldiers were killed and one soldier and two civilians were wounded. The authorities of the localities near the front reported eight residential houses destroyed, one burnt down, and a water tower damaged. A suburb of Gorlovka lost energy from shelling, leaving its residents without vital electricity and heating.
The Ukrainian forces repeatedly shelled the Donetsk filter plant that supplies water to Donetsk and nearby localities on both sides of the frontline. Yesterday the OSCE observers and representatives of the JCCC (Joint Centre of Control and Coordination for the ceasefire), accompanied by Russian and Chinese journalists, visited the plant for an inspection, and came under fire emanating from the Ukrainian side. According to witnesses, the fire ceased as soon as the journalists left the location.
Despite the presence of the international representatives, the Ukrainian media accused the DPR of shelling the plant and creating the subsequent humanitarian disaster. After the plant ceased functioning, Donetsk and localities on DPR territory were connected to a reserve source of water, whereas the Kiev-controlled town of Avdeevka was left without any water supply. It seems like the Ukrainian authorities are deliberately creating this humanitarian catastrophe in order to place blame on the DPR.
Civilians in the Kiev-controlled territories not only live in inhumane conditions but face a daily threat of death. According to residents of a locality in the south of Donbass, the Ukrainian military shot to death a 42-year-old woman when she demanded that they move their firing positions from the yard of her house. It is hard to characterize as defense and liberation what the Ukrainian army brings to the people of Donbass.
The DPR Armed Forces returned fire only as a last resort. Even the Ukrainian military press service had to admit in their latest report a decrease in the intensity of shelling coming from the DPR side. According to the press service, over the past day the Ukrainian positions were shelled 14 times using 82mm and 120mm mortars, grenade launchers of different types, large-caliber machine guns, and small arms. Also mentioned was one anti-tank guided missile launched at Ukrainian positions.
This report of the Ukrainian military press service, like the previous ones, does not even mention the heavy fighting near Yasinovataya, situated between Donetsk and Gorlovka, and the serious losses, reported earlier by the DPR Defense Ministry, suffered by Ukrainian forces. However, according to DPR intelligence, the Ukrainian General Staff and the SBU (Security Council of Ukraine) have commenced an investigation into the numerous losses the Ukrainians suffered near Yasinovataya.
In the Ukrainian army there is also an increase in the number of non-combat losses, including those caused by hazing. DPR intelligence sources on the ground report recently of typical cases being when Ukrainian soldiers, unwilling to take part in fighting, refuse to stand on guard duty or even desert their positions, after which they are severely beaten by their commanders.
The Kharkov military hospital over the past two weeks received up to 100 Ukrainian soldiers, more than two-thirds of whom had suffered from trauma obviously caused by hazing. According to the medical staff, some of this trauma ended up being fatal.
DPR intelligence reported that in one of the Ukrainian units located near Gorlovka, the growing tension between soldiers and officers resulted in soldiers taking hostage their commanders and demanding they be sent back home. Several hours later the rebellion was subdued and the mutinous soldiers handed over to the special services and psychologists.
Huge casualties and non-combat losses are responsible for the lack of Ukrainian soldiers on the front line. Because of this, Kiev is increasing the number of mercenaries in the operational zone. The DPR Defense Ministry reported that in the direction of Mariupol in the south of Donbass, units consisting of Turkish citizens have appeared. It is not excluded that these units were sent to Ukraine following the meeting between the Ukrainian and Turkish presidents, perhaps as a deal in exchange for some territories in the south of Ukraine near the border with Crimea, where several Turkish settlements are already reported to be under construction.
In addition, DPR intelligence reports that the Ukrainian authorities have taken a decision to send conscripts to the area of operations. This information is confirmed by the fact that two conscripts were found dead by DPR soldiers in the area of Yasinovataya, having been left behind by retreating Ukrainian soldiers following a failed attack.
Kiev also continues to use nationalist battalions to keep both civilians in the occupied territories as well as regular army soldiers under control. DPR intelligence sources on the ground reported that a few days ago, the western Ukrainian “Lviv” battalion arrived on the frontline, tasked not only with cleansing local residents but also with identifying Ukrainian regular army soldiers reluctant to fight.
The amassing of heavy weapons on the contact line by the Ukrainian side never stops either. According to DPR intelligence, over the past day alone, Kiev delivered to the front nine self-propelled artillery systems, four tanks, two “Grad” MLRS, and six 120mm mortars (see below pictures of weapons mentioned). With a sharp increase in the intensity of shelling, the indiscipline of Ukrainian soldiers, and nationalists and mercenaries enjoying a free hand, the situation in Donbass, as the Head of the DPR said in his appeal to the Western leaders, is threatening to get out of control.
Information on weapons mentioned in this article
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The Donetsk International News Agency is a private, non-profit information agency located in the center of the city of Donetsk. It is headed by Finnish journalist, Janus Putkonen and has 10 full time journalists on staff. Approximately half of them are natives of Western European countries. Its website is: www.dninews.com
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